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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My head has found a resting place, not in the vice nor grave. 1-5-0. Sing it out now. Sing it out now. Sing it out now. I did no other accident. I did no other thing. It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for all the last. My great physician kills the sick. The lost he came to save. For he is precious, but he has no one. He is my detail. I did no other argument. I did no other thing. It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me. Sing it out. All right. This time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week, we will be in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 27. We've got the so many times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. I want to make sure that we don't just get that spreading like wildfire. Below that, we've got the note about wrapping up the yearbook portraits. If you haven't gotten your portrait taken, this is it. This is the last call. You've got to get it done immediately. If you have any great photos that you took throughout the year at any kind of church, activities whatsoever, then you can submit those to the email address listed there. We will pick the crème de la crème in order to put them in the yearbook. Send those to the email address indicated. Keep praying for our expectant ladies that they would have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. Camden, New Jersey, we'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. We'll be back with you on the next one. So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days. So going back to Thursday, anything from Thursday. Okay. Saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, but I think it was just something else. All right, one. All right, anything else? All right, gotcha. All right, and then what about Friday? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Oh, there we go. Okay, and then Saturday. Okay. All right, and then what about today, Sunday? Okay, Brother Scott, five. Got it, got it. Okay, got it. Got it. Oops. Okay, anything else from today? Very good, keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with Psalm 24. Let's keep tuning into the song service tonight, and we'll sing Psalm 24, The Earth is the Lord's and the Fullness Thereof. Sing it out. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein For he have founded it upon the seas And established it upon the flood Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord For who shall stand in his holy place He that hath clean hands and hunger hard He that hath lifted up his soul Unto men in pain or soreness in pain He shall receive the blessing from the Lord And righteousness from the God of his salvation This is the generation of men that seek him That seek by faith the faith of Selah Lift up your hands, O ye gates And make ye lift up the everlasting doors And the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory The Lord strong and mighty The Lord mighty in battle Lift up your hands, O ye gates And make ye lift up the everlasting doors And the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory The Lord of hosts He is the King of Glory Lift up your hands, O ye gates And make ye lift up the everlasting doors And the King of Glory Lift up your hands, O ye gates And the King of Glory Lift up your hands, O ye gates I have been there even for years, I have been there When I sought the Blessed Lord and I took him at his word Then at once all my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I remember since my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away I remember when my burdens rolled away That I appeared to them only night and day Jesus showed to me the law, so I left them at the cross I will come when my burdens roll away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away I remember when my burdens rolled away That I had been there for years, night and day As I sought the throne of grace, just the glimpse of Jesus' face And I knew that my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away I am singing since my burdens rolled away There's a song within my heart, night and day I am living for my King and the joy I shall be singing Hallelujah, my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away Rolled away, rolled away I am happy since my burdens rolled away Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around as the plates go around Let's turn our Bibles to Isaiah chapter number 31 Isaiah chapter number 31 As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1 Isaiah chapter number 31 Isaiah 31 Woe to them that go down to Egypt, for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord Yet he also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back his words but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of them that work iniquity Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is hoping shall fall down, and they all shall fall together For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, like as the young lion roaring on his prey When a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice nor abase himself for the noise of them So shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the hill thereof As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem Defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord whose fire is in Zion and its furnace in Jerusalem Dear God, thank you for bringing us back together tonight Dear God, please bless the service, please bless the pastor Please fill me with your words, and please give him boldness, and please give him wisdom In Jesus' name I pray, Amen Amen The title of my sermon this evening is Going Down to Egypt for Help Going Down to Egypt for Help Now in the Bible, Egypt symbolically represents the world And if you think about it, the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt as slaves, and then they left Egypt and went into the Promised Land The idea here is transcending this wicked and evil world and living a more excellent way of life Because the way of this world is wrong And God is showing us a better way to live our lives He doesn't want us, even after we're saved and have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to just remain living in this world the way that everyone else is living He wants us to be different And so Egypt represents sort of the old life, the way of this world the wisdom of this world, and so forth Now if you think back to Biblical times there were times in the Bible when Egypt was the number one most powerful nation in the world Other times it was still a very powerful nation And so obviously this world has a lot to offer It has wisdom and riches and power and things like that But of course what God has to offer is so much better than anything that this world has to offer So with that in mind, we look at Isaiah chapter 31 here It says, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because there are many and in horsemen because they are very strong But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord And so the children of Israel are located near Egypt It's really, even after they've left Egypt and gone to the Promised Land It's really not that far away that they've gone when you think about the entire world And so later on in their history they would have problems with other neighboring nations and maybe they were under a threat of invasion or fighting with their neighbors Maybe the Assyrians are coming And there is a tendency for them to sometimes, instead of seeking the Lord and relying on God to lean on one of the other nations around them for help One of the more powerful nations And of course one of those is Egypt And the idea here is that they're threatened by someone else and they're going to Egypt to help them out Instead of asking for God's help and God's protection and getting right with God They instead go to Egypt for help And they say, well Egypt has a lot of horses and chariots and they're just going to be able to physically help me out Whereas the children of Israel, when they're right with God, God protects them anyway God keeps them safe and God even allows them to stand up to enemies that are way more powerful than them, right? For example, the Assyrians come and they surround Jerusalem And it pretty much just looks like there's no way out for Hezekiah And they've already defeated the northern kingdom and they're surrounding Jerusalem And nobody's been able to stand up to them And of course God sends His angel that just smites the host of the Assyrians And they wake up in the morning and a bunch of them are dead and they end up going home You know, I don't know if God smote them with some kind of disease or whatever But somehow He supernaturally killed this huge number of enemy forces that had surrounded them And today if Israel wants to be safe, what they need to do is just be right with God Trust in the Lord, seek God and He will protect His people And of course the lesson for us in 2024 is that God is the one that ultimately is going to protect us He's going to cause us to prosper, He's going to keep us from crashing and burning in our lives Financially, relationships, whatever, God is going to take care of us We need to trust in the Lord and not go to Egypt for help, right? Because there could be a tendency to think, well the world has the answer to my problems You know, it's not found in the Bible, it's not that I need to get more serious about the things of God Or get serious about reading my Bible or church It's not that I need to search the scripture to find an answer for how to proceed in my life It's just the world is going to fix everything for me Look what the Bible says in verse number 2 Yet He also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back His words This is of course talking about God But will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of them that work iniquity And look what the Bible says in verse 3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit And the idea here is that sometimes Christians, and especially Christian children, teenagers who've grown up in that Christian home They can sometimes kind of glorify what this world has to offer because they haven't actually been there or experienced it, right? People who've actually been out there in the world, they know that the world has nothing to offer And that as the Bible says, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God But for the child who grows up, for example, being homeschooled They might look over at the public school and envy those kids in the public school Or think about what worldly kids' lives are like and somehow think that they have all the answers But I got news for you, you know, the Egyptians, they're not God They're just men, they're just people just like you and me And guess what? The people that are outside of the church have the same kind of the problems as what the people inside the church have You might think, oh, it's so hard serving God and oh, it's so difficult growing up as a Christian young person Or growing up as a Christian child or teenager, you know, just living the Christian life But let me tell you something, people out there are going through their own problems And the same trials and temptations that you're going through are also being accomplished in your brethren that are in the world They're not God out there, okay? The kids down at public school are not God The teachers aren't God, right? The teachers and professors and counselors of this world, they're not God They don't have all the answers, they don't have everything figured out, okay? In reality, the Bible has the answers and God's people have it figured out way more than the people out there in this world You know, I get a little bit weary of this talk sometimes that says, oh, you know, church people are like this Or church people are like that or, oh, you know, there's too many hypocrites at church Folks, this whole world is filled with hypocrites And whenever I hear this talk about church people this or church people that, I'm always just dumbfounded I'm like, have you ever been out in this world? Because guess what? If you went to any school or any place of business Or any neighborhood or anywhere, you will find the same type of problems The same type of drama, the same type of selfishness, the same type of hypocrisy It's called human nature, it's called a sin nature, okay? All of the problems that you find with God's people in the house of God are out there times two Times three, times four when you're dealing with unsaved people And I find the exact opposite to be true of this talk about church people I find that when I get around the people of this world and then I get around church people, it's refreshing to be around church people You know, I go to Faithful Word Baptist Church and I'm thinking like, this is my group here These are my kind of people and I actually prefer church people to the people of this world Why? Because the people that are from church, yeah, they've got the flesh Yeah, they're sinners just like the people out there, but at least they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them So at least there's that godly influence of the Holy Spirit in their life And at least if you go to a church like Faithful Word Baptist Church At least you know that people are serious about the things of God And there's a lot more interest in actually living for God and caring for what God says in a place like this Than at a lot of places And so this attitude that's down on church people because there are problems You know, because, oh, this lady's this way and this guy's this way Well guess what, you go out there, you're going to find those kind of people all day long All the things that you don't like about people at church, you're going to find out there and more Those people aren't God, you know, they are not perfect Nobody's perfect And so if you just think that going to Egypt is just the answer and it's just going to solve your problems, right? Just get out of church and just live the way of this world And look, of course the world makes their way look successful Of course they polished the apple But you know what, they're going through all kinds of problems and struggles and pain and misery That's just the way the world works, my friend And so thinking that Egypt is just going to save you and fix everything, it isn't You know, young people growing up, you just think like Oh man, I just need to get out of my parents' house and just go and embrace the ways of this world And the philosophies of this world and just kind of go live And this is what Christian young people call it, living a normal life You know, just like normal people, right? But let me tell you something, this world in America in 2024 is anything but normal Okay, you want to know what normal is, it's Christian people who go to church and live a normal, decent Christian life Okay, that's what I consider normal And if you think that worldliness is normal, well, you know what, you're the one who's wrong And so this thing of, oh, you know, we could just get out of church and that'll fix everything And just live a normal life in this world You know what, the people in this world, they're not happy with that normal life They're miserable, they're going through problems that are on par with what Christians are going through But the difference is that at least when Christians go through problems, at least there's a purpose Like at least if we endure hardship, we can say, hey, we're doing this to get people saved We're doing this because we're serving God We're suffering for the cause of Christ We're going to push forward and weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning And I have not heard and ear, excuse me, ear hasn't heard and eye has not seen what God has prepared for those that love him Whereas when you're out in this world suffering, you have nothing to look forward to It's just suffering and more suffering and failure Whereas at least with God, you know that he's going to bless your latter end Even if you're like Job, he blessed the latter end of Job and gave him double And so the Bible says here when the Lord shall stretch out his hand halfway through verse 3 Both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is hoping shall fall down And they all shall fail together, right? Talking about Egypt and the people who rely on Egypt for help, they're all going to fail in the end And then if you would flip back over to chapter 30, just one page back in your Bible, Isaiah chapter 30 It says this, woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me And that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin That walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh And to trust in the shadow of Egypt And so we see here that the rebellious children are being rebuked for listening to counsel that doesn't come from God Right? Because the Bible says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly Alright? And so again, going to Egypt for help, a lot of times people will go to the world Go to the just kind of the normal, you know, the non-Christian secular world to get advice about how to live their lives Uh, rebellious children that don't take counsel of the Lord Folks, the Bible has the answer to all your problems It just does, okay? If you want to have the right kind of marriage, you need to do what the Bible says It needs to be according to scripture, okay? Now, that doesn't mean it's always going to be easy Obviously there are going to be challenges Obviously the Christian life is hard But guess what? The non-Christian life is even harder Everybody is going through difficult things in their life Nobody is living a life that's just a bed of roses And if they are, well, it's probably all going to fall apart tomorrow Okay? Because that's just the way the world works Everybody goes through trials and tribulations And so don't get your advice from people who deny the word of God Go to the word of God and embrace its teachings And by the way, don't just get a trial size of what the word of God has to offer for your life And say, well, I'm going to try it out Folks, you need to be all in And let me tell you something I've been listening to the word of God for decades And I am all in And it doesn't matter what happens in my life I am not going to stop believing and practicing what the Bible says Though he slay me, yet will I trust him Okay? And so you've got to decide that you're all in And that you are going to follow the Bible no matter what And that you're going to have the faith to believe that God is going to bless you For doing what the Bible says And that you don't need to go run and get some other advice of a different way to live your life than what the Bible says Now look, obviously there's nothing wrong with learning things outside of the Bible You know, there's nothing wrong with reading books that aren't the Bible Listening to people give you advice that's not the Bible But it better not be contrary to the Bible Right? I mean, look, if somebody wants to tell you how to do gardening in Arizona or something Hey, that's great That, you know, it's not like, hey, you need to go to the Bible for that Obviously when I say the Bible has all the answers, I'm talking about the big questions of life I'm talking about moral issues I'm talking about spiritual issues And look, if you are going to listen to secular advice about something It needs to jive with what the Bible says But if somebody comes along and starts telling you to do things differently than the Bible You need to reject that wisdom and reject that logic You need to do what the Bible says God is right This is the tried and the true It's not going to be perfect It's not always going to be easy But you know what? You're going to be better off following scripture And you know what? People change People come and go People let you down People let you down But the Bible never changes Your parents and grandparents and great grandparents had this book Hopefully they were reading this book And following this book long before you were ever even born Okay And so this is the rock that never changes Don't just rebel and take counsel of someone other than the Lord And decide you're going to try living life a different way It's going to be a big waste of your time And it might even lead to destruction Don't go down to Egypt not asking counsel at the mouth of the Lord It says that they strengthen themselves Verse 2 In the strength of Pharaoh and trust in the shadow of Egypt Right And the idea here is that you know Egypt is not real Okay Like there's a facade of strength there But God is saying that it's sort of like And he brings this up elsewhere Leaning on Egypt is sort of like if a man Leaned upon one of those bull rushes that grow by the side of the river Where they just instantly just bend You know what I mean? Like you just lean on this bruised reed of Egypt And it just instantly just collapses Right it looks But some of those things they look pretty strong Right they look like they're going to actually have some strength They look like a staff or a rod or something But then you lean on it And it just collapses under you Right And that's the facade of thinking that this world has the answers for you It says Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame And the trust in the shadow of Egypt Your confusion For his princes were it Zoan and his ambassadors came to Haines They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them Nor be a help nor profit but a shame and also a reproach The burden of the beasts of the south Into the land of trouble and anguish From whence come the young and old lion The viper and fiery flying serpent Now what are we talking about here with the viper and the fiery flying serpent Obviously when we talk about Egypt We're talking about a desert region right Egypt is a desert If you look at a satellite image you know along the Nile River There's a bunch of green but the rest of it's a desert The Bible also talks about it not raining in Egypt Even all the way back in Bible times It's talking about the fact that it doesn't rain there And so you've got kind of desert animals or desert creatures And you know what you would expect to find in a desert And the viper, the fiery flying serpent And it says They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses And their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not profit them Right So the idea here is that Israel is loading up all this money and wealth And they're sending it down to Egypt on asses Saying well if we pay the Egyptians then they're going to protect us They're going to save us They're going to take care of us And often the children of Israel would even take stuff out of the house of God Stuff that had been dedicated to God And take gold and silver and things that belong to the Lord And say hey we got to give this stuff to Egypt So that Egypt will protect us Let's take stuff away from the Lord And give it to Egypt and they're going to protect us And what he's saying is you're going to just send all this wealth into Egypt But you're not going to get anything in return You're not actually going to get what you pay for when you send that money It says for the Egyptian, verse 7 The Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose Therefore have I cried concerning this Their strength is to sit still He's saying look Don't go to Egypt Stay put in Israel Stay in the promised land Stay with the promises of God Stay with the Bible Stay in church Okay Because whatever you invest out there in the world Your time Your energy Your money In living that life that is contrary to God's word Is all just a big waste And you better just wait on the Lord And be patient Because let's face it There are times in life Where you're serving God And things are going bad And you don't think things are going to get better And you can despair You can give up Right But there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man And God is not going to tempt you above what you were able And so you need to just hang in there Push through Keep going And not just go running to this world for sucker Just running to this world for comfort and aid When things are going bad And you know There are times in our lives There are times in my life When serving God is fun It's exciting And I'm pumped up And I'm feeling great about it I have all kinds of joy in my heart And then there are other times where you're going through a low point Right And here's what I've found in my life is that When I'm going through a low point I just continue Doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing Even if my attitude is the wrong attitude Even if I don't feel like it I just make myself read the Bible I don't feel like it I pray anyway I just don't feel like it Drag myself to church And you know you'd be better off dragging yourself to church Sitting there with your arms crossed With a bad attitude Sitting in church Than not being in church And you know what I can't even count how many times I've gone out soul winning with a bad attitude Bad mood Not interested in soul winning Didn't feel like it And went out soul winning And got someone saved You know Recently I had kind of a bad attitude I went solely the first door I knocked Saved And it's just like God does that to me a lot Because he's just showing me Hey, keep doing it Whether you feel it or not Whether it seems like it's working or not Keep going Don't stop Push through Okay You're better And look There are all kinds of examples in the Bible Of people who get kind of a bad attitude Or down in the dumps And then they're just greatly used of God anyway Even though they have a bad attitude You know You look at Ezekiel In early parts of Ezekiel He talks about You know how he's bitter And feeling bad And so forth You know You look at Jeremiah Say, oh God You've deceived me I'm not That's it I'm done I'm never going to preach in your name again Right But then he ends up just Preaching anyway He just keeps going He just keeps doing it Okay And obviously There are all kinds of people in the Bible Like Elijah Just saying Oh God Just go ahead and kill me now I'm done I'm ready to go home I don't want to do this anymore I don't want to do this anymore And And You know When you think about Elijah in particular Elijah gets down in the dumps Right And Jezebel And he just By the way He's just coming off the great victory With the prophets of Baal At Mount Carmel And he had that great victory Where he calls down fire from God I mean We think to ourselves Oh man If I could ever Just pray And the fire of God comes down I mean You know I would just be on cloud nine Oh to be greatly used of God Like Elijah To be able to just pray down the fire of God And defeat the prophets of Baal And kill the prophets of Baal But then just the very next day Jezebel puts out a warrant for his arrest And says he's going to be dead And he gets super down and depressed And he ends up Going and just You know Laying down under a juniper tree The angel comes And And Wakes him up And tells him to eat He eats He falls back asleep You know And the angel's like Alright come on You gotta go And he wanders through the wilderness All the way to Mount Sinai Which is not in Israel So he ends up just Hiking Ultra marathon style To Arabia To Mount Sinai And he goes there And when he gets there He's complaining to God How I'm the only one left And And they're trying to kill me And where You know Where's everybody else And then God of course tells him That there are seven thousand men That have not Boweled the knee to Baal Then There's nothing Work to do God says look This is what you're gonna do You gotta Anoint Elisha To be a prophet In your place You gotta train The next generation You gotta go Anoint Hesiel To be king of Syria So he gives him these instructions He sends him back to Israel He says go back And do Your job That I've given you And he goes back And it's interesting When he goes back And recruits Elisha To be now his sidekick His right hand man That he's gonna train The next generation Right Because Elijah Trains Elisha To take over Afterward And by the way Elisha Does twice as much for God As Elijah did So he does You know He's able to train It's a good thing he didn't quit Before he could train The next generation Yeah Because the next generation Ends up being even better Than him And it's It's funny because When he goes To recruit Elisha He throws his mantle Upon Elisha And I don't know about you But when I read that passage I can kind of feel That Elijah still kind of has a bad attitude And that he's really just not that into it But that he's just doing what God told him to do And kind of going through the motions I mean did anybody kind of feel that way When you're reading that Because he doesn't even really say anything to him He just kind of throws the mantle on him Like ah let's go And then what's funny is Elisha says Hey is it alright if I say goodbye to everybody first About you know And what's funny is that in the New Testament Jesus You know He's just on fire Like Jesus is just preaching And soul winning And doing all this stuff And he's doing so much They have to tell Jesus to take a break I mean he's intense Because you know Jesus only has that ministry For you know approximately three and a half years And so he's obviously the perfect man And so he's just working hard Serious Getting things done And it's funny when somebody says something similar to Jesus Like hey I need to go back And say goodbye Jesus is like You know Well anybody Who puts his hand to the plow And looks back Is not fit for the kingdom of God Right Oh I gotta go bury my dead Hey let the dead bury their dead Preach out the kingdom of God You know Jesus is like Nope let's go We gotta go Elisha tells Elijah Hey is it alright if I say goodbye He's just like Whatever I don't care That's pretty much what he says You know It's a little bit of a paraphrase But he pretty much is like Yeah Okay Yeah I go back Whatever I don't care Take your time You know cause he's kind of coming off of A rough period And I think some of you have probably read that passage And kind of got that same vibe that I got From the way that he says that to him You know what but he just keeps going He just pushes through And God ends up using him mightily To train the next generation And so sometimes you just go through the motions And you know One of my favorite Bible characters is Jonah You know I love the book of Jonah I love the character Jonah Because of the fact that you know Jonah gets a lot of criticism And obviously yeah We can preach sermons criticizing Jonah Because we're looking at this episode in his life Where he's not quite right with God He's definitely disobeying And doing wrong things But at the same time This guy just can't help but just get people saved Everywhere he goes He's just accidentally getting more people saved Than the people who criticize him I mean this guy just everywhere Everybody on the ship's getting saved Everybody in Nineveh's getting saved And he doesn't even have the right attitude Bad attitude, wrong attitude And yet just can't stop Just getting people saved everywhere he goes You know what I mean And here's the thing In Jonah chapter 3 Jonah does not have his heart right with God Because remember in chapter 1 Jonah was disobedient But then he gets swallowed by He gets thrown overboard, swallowed by the whale And so you might think to yourself Oh well when he's in the whale He gets right with God And then he comes out of the whale And now he's just got a heart right with God Ready to serve God, ready to do the right thing That's not really what happened Okay If you actually look at Jonah's prayer In Jonah chapter 2 He doesn't really ever Say anything in that prayer Read Jonah chapter 3 He doesn't really say anything that says like I need to go to Nineveh He pretty much goes to Nineveh Because God's forcing him to go to Nineveh In Jonah chapter It's not that his heart has gotten right It's that he just spent three days And three nights in the whale's belly So yeah, he's gonna go to Nineveh Because he's just been tortured In a whale's belly for three days and three nights After 72 hours of that Yeah, you're gonna go wherever God tells you to go But it doesn't mean you're gonna like it And how do I know he has a bad attitude Because as soon as he gets to Nineveh He has success and he gets mad about it And then in Jonah chapter 4 He's got a super bad attitude In Jonah chapter 4, that's what the whole chapter 4 is His attitude, him giving God attitude So, what's the moral of the story? The idea here is that Jonah Is obviously a godly man He was obviously a great prophet of God Or he wouldn't be Successfully evangelizing so many people Everywhere he goes And God wouldn't have even picked him for this Mission if he had not been A great man of God Okay, we're just witnessing Kind of a dark episode in his life But I guarantee you That he'd been serving God for years And doing all kinds of great things for God That's why he's such a powerful preacher And such a A man of God that's greatly used by God But here's the The moral of the story is that even though He's got a bad attitude He still obeys Even with a bad attitude, he obeys And God's work is accomplished So, the moral of the story is If your attitude is bad Don't let that just stop you from serving God Well, you know, I just have a bad attitude So I think it's better if I just don't go to church Until I fix my attitude I just, you know, I'm just kind of having A bad attitude right now So I think it's better if I just don't go soul winning Until I get my attitude fixed Is that right? No, because the idea here is No, go to church anyway Go soul winning anyway Read your Bible anyway Pray anyway Because it's better to do The right thing even if your Attitude is off, even if you're in a bit of a funk Do it anyway And often that's what'll get you Out of that funk, right? How many times have you come to church with a Bad attitude and left with a great attitude? For me it'd probably be hundreds In my life Where I had a bad attitude, came to church Walked away with a great attitude Went soul winning with a bad attitude Left soul winning with a great attitude But here's the thing I've even shown up for soul winning Won someone to Christ and still had a bad attitude But so what? I still won someone to Christ But usually that'll fix your attitude But even if it doesn't, even if your name's Jonah And you still have a bad attitude after serving God After winning people to Christ Hey! At least you did something for God And you know what? I noticed in Jonah chapter 4 How nice God is to Jonah I mean think about how many times God sternly rebukes people in the Bible And God is just really telling people off And really rebuking them hard Right? We could point to all kinds of passages In scripture where God's saying I'm against you And you're wicked and all these different things But is that how he treats Jonah in Jonah chapter 4? I mean he's pretty gentle with him Like hey Jonah, you know Doest thou well to be angry? Right? And then he's explaining it to him Like hey, you know You care about this gorge Shouldn't I care about Nineveh? You don't see him saying you're wicked I'm gonna judge you I'm gonna destroy you, I'm gonna punish you Why? Because Jonah's a great man of God Right? He's just going through a rough patch He's just going through a dark place He's just going through a difficult time And obviously I'm not justifying Jonah's sin But what I am saying is that we've all sinned And come short of the glory of God None of us is perfect And we're all gonna have highs and lows In our Christian life And if we end up going through a low In our Christian life What we don't want to do Is go to Egypt Or as Jonah did, hey let's go to Tarshish Let's just go to this world or something like that That's not the answer And in Jonah's case, God forced him to do the right thing It's funny, I heard someone say recently God never forces anyone to do anything I'm like, really? What? What the? Like, God never forces anyone to do anything? Really? Now I think what this person's mixing up Is that God doesn't typically Go into somebody's brain and control their brain And make them do stuff Kind of like a Calvinist God Where he's controlling people And making them do things I think that there probably are times When God has gone into people's brains And I think there's scriptural proof for this Where God will go into people's brains And influence them to do different things And make them do things that they weren't necessarily going to do And influence them in that way That's, you know, that's another debate But forget that In general, yeah, God doesn't control people In general, he doesn't do that, does he? In general, he commands us what to do He tells us what to do In his word But he doesn't force anyone to do anything? Really? Because, I don't know, I feel like Jonah was kind of forced to go to Nineveh When he didn't want to How can you say God didn't force Anyone to do anything When Jonah was clearly forced by God To go to Nineveh Now what does it mean to force someone? What does force mean? What does force? It's when you say, like, go to Nineveh or else So if God Says, do this or else, isn't that him forcing people to do Something? You know, well God, God never Forces anyone to do it God doesn't force us, right, but he just tells us He's going to beat us with a stick if we don't Yeah, God never forced us to do Anything, he just says that he's going to Scourge us or whip us if we don't do it But I guess that's not forcing Us, right? Yeah, actually that is Kind of forcing us, isn't it? Obviously, and this was In the context of, oh, you can't force Your wife to do things, you can't force your kids To do things, you know, you can't force anyone To do it, everything's voluntary, all this dumb Crap that's been taught lately And here's the funny thing about that is that You know, I don't remember Ever entering into my children's brain And controlling their brain I've never entered Into my wife's brain and controlled my wife's brain But at the same time I have rules in my house And I've said to my Children, do this, and it's not Like, because you love me It's not like, you know I Love you, right? Take out the trash, would you please? Pretty please with sugar on top? It's like, take out the trash Now what if they just say, no I'm not going to take out the trash Ah, kids these days These darn kids, I tell you I tell you what, what are you going to do If the kids say, no, I'm not going to take out the trash You know what you're going to do? It starts with an F You're going to force them to take out the trash Right? Your kid says, no, I'm not going to brush my teeth You know what you're going to do? You're going to force them to brush their teeth Amen? Or are you just going to say, no, no, it's okay Brushing your teeth is optional Brushing your teeth is voluntary No, you're going to say, you will brush your teeth Or else Now, you're not going to enter their brain, you're not going to tie strings to their arms and make a puppet in like, in like a marionette like, okay, brush your teeth You know, you're not going to be doing that You're not going to be forcing them like, controlling them That's ridiculous That's absurd But you know what you will do You will say, hey, you're going to brush your teeth, this isn't optional Hey, you got to be in bed by 10 or you got to be in bed by 9 You're going to bed Even if they're just up at 1 am, you're just going to be like Ha, these kids, I tell you What are you going to do? Starts with an F You're going to force them to go to bed No, no, he never, God never forces anyone and he's the, you know, so why would we force anyone to do anything God never, God's a gentleman and he never forces anyone to do anything Right, there was like a, there was a meme like that of Joel Osteen saying like God is a gentleman, he'll never force, but the thing is though I'm not sure, I was wondering if that Joel Osteen clip was taken out of context because I don't even think Joel is that stupid But some people lately are literally that stupid to say that God never forces anyone to do anything when in reality the Bible is replete with examples of God saying, do this Well, what if we don't do it? Oh, I don't know, then I'm just going to burn it all down Right, I'm going to just burn your house down I mean, it's like, oh, you know, I'm reading the book of Numbers this week, and it's just I've always found the book of Numbers to be the gnarliest book in the Bible You know, when it's not just listing catalogs of names and animals and things, man, when you get into the stories in the book of Numbers though, there's some gnarliness there, and it's just like, you know, people are complaining and God just starts burning fire He's sending fiery serpents to bite him He's burning with the fire of the Lord Oh, but God's just a gentleman, he's not forcing anybody to do anything, right? No, he kind of forces people to do a lot of things throughout the Bible and you have to wonder how biblically stupid someone would have to be to make this statement God never forced anyone to do anything in the history of mankind, because last time I checked you don't have to get very far in the Bible before God is throwing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and he's not saying, hey, just, you know I hope you guys will honor my wishes that you stay away from the tree of life Is that what he does? Does he say hey, you know, I prefer that you not eat from the tree of life now that you know the difference between good and evil and you're sort of God-like in that sense you know, I'd rather that you not put forth your hand and eat the tree of life also and live forever, you know Is that okay? No, you know what he does? He has a flaming sword and what is the purpose of the flaming sword in Genesis chapter 3 is to force them to stay out of the Garden of Eden Garden of Eden I don't understand how you can read the Bible and not see this over and over again where God is using not always the carrot, but sometimes using the stick and telling people that they have to do something God is constantly saying, you have to do this well what if I don't, what if I don't believe in Jesus well you're going to go to hell then you're going to burn in hell okay once we're saved, once we believe in Jesus what if we don't serve him? ha, whatever just live your life how you want then see you in heaven in 70 years no, God will do what? he'll discipline you you know what he'll do? similar to what he did to Jonah obviously Jonah is an extreme situation, God will often use these kind of extreme examples in order to show us a truth very vividly but obviously we're very unlikely to go through something as dramatic as Jonah where we get swallowed by a whale or something, but he'll do something sometimes to kind of force us to get on the right path once again okay, and I don't want to insult your intelligence by spending any more time on that point because I think everybody understands that, but it says in verse number 8 now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever that this is a rebellious people, lying children children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers see not, and to the prophets prophesy not into us right things speak unto us smooth things prophesy deceits get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us, and so we see that these rebels who want to go to Egypt for help they want to rely on Egypt to help them right, they're going to this world for help and they're rejecting the word of God, right they don't want to hear at the end of verse 9 the law of the Lord right, so they don't want God's word to be told to them, they're looking for another way of life, another explanation of how things work than what the Bible says, and then also they're not looking toward biblical preaching for the answers, right we need to get the answers in our life from reading the Bible ourselves and from listening to biblical preaching, and not listening to somebody who tells you, hey God never makes anybody do anything I mean cause that's just dumb alright, because God literally made them not eat from the tree with a flaming sword you know, case closed and we could, you know if you want we could go through like 2000 examples of that throughout the whole Bible, that's just at the beginning, but the idea here is that there are people who prophesy right things they preach right things, and what's the definition of a right thing, a biblical thing they preach something that's biblical, and here's what that means, that means that you could figure it out on your own from reading the Bible without them explaining it to you that's what it means right, because what does the Bible say you have no need that any man teach you and so if there's something that I preach and you can't see it for yourself in the word of God then it's probably something that I made up, because if you're there you're saved, you got the Holy Spirit you should be able to see whatever I'm saying in the Bible yourself it shouldn't be like, well I'm just going to have to trust Pastor Anderson on this one, it's like, well no your Bible's open, I'm reading a verse, telling you what it means and it should be that after I'm done explaining it you look back at it yourself and you're like yup, that is what it says yeah, that is what that means, well I'm glad Pastor Anderson explained that to me, because now it makes sense, now it jives and when I look to my Bible, I can see that, because I have sat in sermons, I'm not kidding, where I've listened to preaching, and at the time it made a ton of sense and I'm sitting there and listening and it's making a ton of sense, making a ton of sense and I'm like, wow, it's a great sermon, it's making so much sense then like the next day I tried to figure it out and I couldn't recreate it and I'm thinking like oh, I want to remember that truth, or oh, maybe I can preach something like that, and I would go and try to find it in my Bible and it isn't there anymore it was only there when the preacher was talking about it, and then as soon as I went back to look for it, I couldn't find it, it wasn't there anymore you want to know why, it's because sometimes preachers have a way of just kind of saying a bunch of stuff that sounds good and makes sense at the time and a lot of times we can just get caught up in what they're saying but the real test is when you go back and look at the Bible and it's still there okay, because the Bible is written and meant to be understood and so if I explain some passage of scripture to you and I have to do all these mental gymnastics to explain it to you, and then when I'm not here just taking you by the hand through every phase of it, and it's just you and the Bible and all of a sudden it isn't there, it probably was never there in the first place it should be that the preacher shines a light on it for you illuminates it for you, explains it it all makes sense to you but then the next day it still makes sense and when he's not around talking to you it still makes sense and some other guy in Timbuktu is reading the Bible and figuring out the same thing without Pastor Anderson's help okay, that's true biblical truth and so there are those who prophesy right things and what's the opposite of right things? we would want to say wrong things but in this passage the opposite of right things is smooth things and what does that mean? that means that sometimes the right preaching ends up being hard preaching right, things that are hard are often the truth there are some hard truths in the Bible and you know when we talk about hard preaching here's what we don't mean we don't just mean you're yelling you're saying things that are offensive or edgy or radical or wild you know there are all kinds of talk show hosts and comedians and stuff that get really edgy and kind of say some harsh things or whatever but is that really what we mean by hard preaching? what we mean by hard preaching is uncompromising preaching of what the Bible actually says nothing is sugar coated or adapted to our current culture and generation not like well you know it's 2024 America so we got to kind of sweep this under the rug and kind of maybe soften this part up maybe skip that verse or gloss that over or maybe say it doesn't really mean what it says no the hard preaching gets up and takes something in the Bible that is not popular and gets up and just calls it like it is and tells it like it is and does so unashamedly and does so with boldness and so yeah there could often be some loudness involved there could be some dynamic preaching involved in hard preaching but of course it is also hard truths you know I think about reading the four gospels and how many times Jesus will explain something to his disciples and they just have trouble with it you know when he explains to them his teachings on divorce and they're just kind of struggling to grasp it and what does Jesus say to them he that is able to receive it let him receive it and he even says all men cannot receive this saying in Matthew 19 some people are gonna have a hard time with this everybody can't receive it but it's true it's right you know and of course in John chapter 6 the people say to Jesus this is a hard saying who can hear it many people stop following him they stop listening to him because he said some hard things and so the opposite of right things is smooth things so beware of the smooth preacher beware of the preacher who doesn't ruffle any feathers he smooths everything out he makes everything really palatable and you know the Bible says that we should adorn the doctrine of God our savior but the way that we adorn the doctrine of God our savior is with our good works right having the life to back up the doctrine is what you know it doesn't mean like well we gotta decorate it so that people don't realize how gnarly it really is hey there's some gnarly things in the Bible he that hath an ear let him hear he that is able to receive it let him receive it he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches you know the Bible isn't sitting there and begging you to would you oh would you please accept this doctrine it's just like you know what he that is unjust let him be unjust still he that is filthy let him be filthy still he that hath an ear let him hear oh I don't know man this is this kind of hard hey well all men can't receive this saying hey I guess this church just isn't for everybody hey I guess this preaching isn't for everybody bye not like oh well you know what can we do to put you in this car today you know what what what can we do to get you into you know being a fundamental Baptist today it's like take it or leave it man take it or leave it but there are some people out there that they're leaning on this world's philosophy more than on the word of God they've embraced Egypt they've embraced the psychology and psychobabble of Egypt they've embraced the philosophies of Egypt they've embraced the lifestyle of Egypt and in many ways 2024 America embraces a lot of worldly things that are contrary to the Bible and so if you're just going to be normal in 2024 America you're going to end up embracing a bunch of sinful things and then you're going to end up turning your ear away from the law of the Lord because it's not going to jive with your chosen lifestyle because the law is going to have some rough things in it you're going to have a hard time with the book of Numbers you're going to have a hard time in Leviticus and Deuteronomy but at the end of the day the law of the Lord is perfect you're the one who needs to get your mind renewed and of course you're going to have plenty of hard things in the New Testament as well there are plenty of teachings in the New Testament that worldly Christians struggle with and refuse to obey and they don't want to hear the law of the Lord and they don't want to hear preaching so instead what they do is they say to the prophets prophesy not don't preach we don't want to hear that don't preach right things preach smooth things prophesy deceit now obviously they don't say it in those words look at verse 10 it says prophesy not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophesy deceit obviously when the Bible says this it's not saying that they literally walk up to the pastor and say hey would you lie to us and just tell us comfortable truths comfortable lies instead of inconvenient truths obviously they're not literally saying that but what they'll do is in essence they will say that because they'll say stop preaching x and it'll be something that's biblical preach y instead which is not biblical they're not going to say hey please lie to us but they're just going to say hey preach that my sin is okay stop preaching against this sin preach this it's never going to be this blatant like hey preach lies and again this is echoed in the New Testament when the Bible says the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they will turn away their ears from the truth and be turned into fables and so they will go out and seek out and today here's the thing let's say someone is at a church that's preaching hard and preaching things that are biblical preaching things that are uncool or unacceptable or whatever in 2024 then what they'll do is they can just easily find in 2024 in Phoenix Arizona you can find a church that's going to be whatever level of truth you're comfortable with right? like you can find a church that's not going to preach against your sin you can find a church that's going to have a really worldly philosophy about filling the blank whatever you're interested in I mean there are so many hundreds yay thousands of churches in the greater Phoenix area you're going to be able to find the church that suits you and your carnal worldly attitude or you can come down to Faithful Word Baptist Church and actually hear hard preaching from the Bible great dope unfiltered uncensored right? that's what you need to hear but it says in verse 11 you know they say prophesy to seeds get you out of the way turn aside out of the path cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and stay thereon therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant so what the Bible is saying here is that when you have this attitude that says I'm going to go to Egypt for help you know what I'm unhappy I don't like my life and so I'm going to go try the bar you know I'm going to go try fornication I'm going to go try the liberal you know church that where anything goes I'm going to go try this or that or the other you know and I don't I don't want to read the law of God I don't want to hear hard preaching the sin that you have in your life that you're not willing to let go of and the wrong things that you want to hang on to they're basically like this you can think about like a swelling that's about to just burst open right it's like a build up of pressure okay and it says here that it will be like a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall who's breaking cometh suddenly at an instant right so as you can imagine like a balloon or something right and it's just filling up and just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and and eventually it's just going to explode right and what the Bible is saying here is that you're basically building up all of this judgment and all this wrath that's going to come down and right now you're fine but all of this stuff is just kind of building up building up building up and if you don't relieve that pressure before it's too late if you don't start getting that sin out of your life and getting right with God and repenting of those things eventually it's just going to explode and then it's like there's no putting it back you know when I read this passage I think about a dam bursting right and you think about a dam and it's just kind of bulging under the pressure and then eventually just boom the dam burst and once the dam bursts there's no way to put that water back it's just it's too late and this is like where the Bible says he that being often reproved hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy so there's just a continual warning and there's a build up there's a build up and it's just like don't do it don't you know get right with God and it's just like you ignore it and ignore it and then eventually just boom too late suddenly in an instant and he shall break it verse 14 as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces he shall not spare so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water with all out of the pit what he's saying is he's going to break your vessel to the point where it'll be so shattered that there won't even be a big enough piece for you to use to like scoop something out of the fireplace or even a big enough piece to like put a little bit of water in and take a drink out of it because your life is just going to be so shattered and destroyed you're never going to be able to put the pieces back together or make anything useful out of it for thus sayeth the Lord God verse 15 the Holy One of Israel in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength and ye would not right he's saying look stay here stay right with God just put your head down and keep serving God grind it out don't go running to Egypt for help just wait upon the Lord be patient stay in church read your Bible do what you're supposed to do he says but ye said no for we will flee upon horses therefore shall you flee and we will ride upon the swift therefore shall they that pursue you be swift the idea here is that you can't run away from God and you can't run away from your problems okay Jonah back to him he tried to run away from God and of course it didn't work and the idea here is that you know you think that oh if I just leave if I just go to Egypt if I just quit serving God if I just quit the church if I just run away from my family or just leave my spouse if I just divorce my husband or divorce my wife or just flee and whatever you know then everything will be okay I can just live a different life somewhere else you know but God's saying no it's gonna you yeah you'll run but those who chase you will be faster you know you're not really gonna escape right we need to stay put we need to stay married right we need to stay with the Lord we need to stay with church and we need to push through difficult times and not just say well oh things are going bad I'm out of here well then you know what then your problems are just gonna follow you because I guarantee you you say oh well you know I'm just gonna divorce my wife and marry someone else well guess what you're just gonna have problems with the new wife and many people have already realized that they're already on their second wife they're already on their third wife and they're just realizing wow maybe this is just how women are maybe this is just what marriage is like maybe this is what it's like to be married or you can flip that over and you know a woman divorced her husband marries another guy and then she's gonna figure out what well this is what dudes are like because guess what a lot of dudes kind of have the same annoying habits and a lot of women have the same annoying tendencies it's just humans right it's just people and the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence and you just think oh man if I can just go to Egypt it'll be great no your problems are gonna follow you to Egypt Egypt isn't God Egypt doesn't have the answers Egypt doesn't have it all together Egypt's a facade Egypt is a shadow Egypt is a bruised reed if you lean on it you're gonna fall over and land on your face they don't have all the you know oh and it's so funny listening to people criticizing our church and other churches right now and just lionizing the old IFB and just talking about just you know they're describing the old IFB like it's this paradise you know they just remember the leeks and the onions and the cucumbers and look let me just say this look obviously I have great respect for the old IFB and the things that the previous generation accomplished and I think there are a lot of great churches out there that are you know we would kind of call old IFB whatever that means and things that we would think of as old IFB and we kind of would look at those churches and be thankful that they're serving God that they're winning souls and you know there are a lot of good things there but let's face it the new IFB exists for a reason you know what I mean like the new IFB exists for a reason because the old IFB has got some serious problems so well you got problems too yeah but so is the old IFB so does everybody that's called humans and again it's kind of going back to what I was saying earlier it's just life is hard life is challenging there are going to be problems any church and here's the thing you go and switch spouses I guarantee you the first couple years are probably going to be great because the first couple years of everybody's marriage is great okay and look you switch churches and I'm not against switching churches I am 100% for switching churches I think you should go to the best church in your area you know I don't think you need to be necessarily married to a certain church right hey if there's something better out there and there's something that's better for you and better for your family then by all means go but you know what here's the thing about that though is that what you're going to find is that when you get to the new church eventually the honeymoon is going to be over you know you get to some of these churches and it's great for three months it's great for six months then the sermons start repeating and sometimes it's more like three months then six months and the sermons just start repeating and you're like okay I think we've heard this like 700 times and it just keeps going over you start to realize hey every single Sunday morning the first Sunday morning is like this is an awesome sermon but then you start realizing every Sunday morning is a salvation message and you're like whoa what's going on here you know and then everything starts repeating and then you start realizing some of the things that are wrong look we're new IFP for a reason okay and I'm not going to sit here and go through all the things you know that's another time that we could talk about that but it's easy to glorify something else when you're standing far away and it looks good but then but here's the thing a lot of times a mirage you know and it's like we and here's the thing I'm not against switching churches but you know what I am against I'm against being a church hopper and let me tell you something you know I kind of come from a long line of church hoppers okay I'm just going to be honest you know and the thing is you know church hopping is not the answer now there are times when obviously yeah you got to switch churches it's not like now don't ever switch spouses there's never a reason for that you got to stay married till death do us part no matter what okay that's not an option but when it comes to church you're not married to the church okay but what you don't want to be is a church hopper and I've known people like this my whole life where they will just switch churches every year or two and they always have a long list of all the things that they don't like about their church and they're always criticizing their church and no church is ever good enough and they end up just hopping from church to church and just kind of wandering in the wilderness and that's not healthy okay I'm thankful that I've been at the same church for the last 18 and a half years there's a lot to be said for that you know and the church I was at before that I was at for you know not counting going to Bible college you know the church I was at before that I was there for five years and I was at the same church for five years and then I went to Bible college and then I started this church and I've been here for 18 years and I've tried to be steady you know and staying with the same thing right because you say well you're the pastor of course you're going to stay with it really because the average length of a stay of a pastor at a church in America is like two years and you see pastors constantly jumping around in fact there's a church I'm not going to name the name of this church because you know I don't have anything against this church but there's a church just like a couple miles from here and I think they've had like 19 pastors not even kidding and I mean there are other churches in small towns people that I've talked to and I mean they're getting a new pastor every six months every year, year and a half and I've known pastors who you know they're on their fifth church they're pastoring the fifth church that they're pastoring and again I'm not saying that there's never a reason to move but when you're switching churches every two years what's up with that right and you're the pastor but church members are like that too and what that sometimes ultimately leads to this thing of just constantly being a church hopper is that you start getting this puffed up arrogant prideful attitude because you're constantly focusing on what's bad about every church which is why you keep church hopping and then you kind of get this attitude that you've got all the answers you're right about everything and it's just all these church and then ultimately you just end up getting out of church right and you know this is ultimately what happened to my grandpa and my grandpa passed away many many years ago he passed away when I was 11 years old and he was a great man he was a godly man he was a great soul winner, he was a deacon in the church and he actually also founded a church that is still existing to this day in Southern California and so my grandpa was a godly man, great soul winner, anybody that you talk to who knew him will say good things about him like oh man that guy won souls and he would get the hard cases saved I mean people had a loved one and they wanted him to get saved, it's like they get my grandpa in there, he'll get him saved because he'd get the hard cases saved that was the reputation that he had and so you know I wish I could have known him more because unfortunately he passed away when I was 11 I barely knew him, I didn't really get to spend a whole lot of time with him but you know I was able to get a little bit from him but the point is that he eventually though got to a place where no church was good enough for him you know he hopped around hopped around and ultimately at the end of his life he got to a place where no church was good enough and then he's just not going to church he would just sit and do like a Bible study with his wife and yeah he knew the Bible super well and he's reading the Bible a ton and reading the Bible with his wife and going through the Bible at the kitchen table and he would still win people to Christ from time to time but you know what that is not right to get out of church we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together okay and I guarantee you that he was winning way more souls when he was plugged into a local church than when he was just kind of doing his own thing out of church and so I'm not bringing that up to disparage him at all because like I said he was a great man, he was a godly man, he was a righteous man and you know he passed away literally over 30 years ago but it's a cautionary tale that even a guy like that can go down that wrong path of saying no church is good enough and I'm just going to you know do it at home myself but you know what along the path to that point before you get to that point you become a church hopper and I can tell you people that I know you know people in my extended family or just friends of ours and people that we know that have literally you know in the last 20 years it's like they just keep switching churches they're just constantly switching churches like every year or two they're switching churches and they've been to like 12 churches in the last 20 years or something like that right? This is not God's plan for your life okay like I said if there's a need to change then change but you don't want to be this person who's a church hopper because the reason that they're church hoppers is because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence and what it is is they just they run into problems and then it's like they just run away and go find something else instead of staying and dealing with it and pushing through and again some you know obviously some churches are irredeemable you know and some churches aren't worth it you just you're throwing good money after bad just cut your losses and get out you know because the church is a loser the church is going nowhere but you don't want to be this person that just has this attitude of oh anytime there's a problem at my job I'm just going to get a different job oh problem with my spouse I'm out divorce my spouse problem move leave switch churches that's a wrong mentality we need to be planted we don't want to be like cane where we're just wandering around all the time you want to be planted don't flee from your problems because your problems will be faster than you and they will follow you and chase you the bible says in verse 18 and therefore will the lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the lord is a god of judgment are all they that wait for him for the people shall dwell in Zion thou shalt weep no more he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee and so the idea here is that look hang in there and wait upon the lord and god's going to take care of you god's going to come through the world doesn't have the answer quitting on god is not the answer trading up spouses is not the answer switching churches is not necessarily the answer you know unless you're going to a bad church which you're not because you're at faithful word but you've got to be patient and keep serving god and keep working the program keep following the bible and don't necessarily just expect for everything to perfect to be perfect or for everything to work instantly and just oh that's it I'm going to go I need Egypt to help me you know oh god's not coming through for me alright let's take all the treasures out of the house of god and let's put them on donkeys and send them to Egypt let's just have Egypt they're not god they can't fix it god has the answers for your problems and so be patient wait for him stick to the word stick to the hard preaching stick with your spouse stick with your job stick with things in general and only change things when they need to be changed but don't just be one who's just constantly hopping around and can't stay on anything and stay with anything okay and look at faithful word baptist church we've got a good thing going here and we've had a good thing going here for 18 and a half years we have done amazing works for god every single year including 2024 in fact in anyways 2024 is our greatest year by a lot of metrics and so you know we've got a good thing going here now look if you want to leave don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you but here's the thing about that is that these other churches out there that some people are enamored with you know what you're going to find is that they have their own set of problems they're not necessarily all that they're cracked up to be and you were probably just trading one set of problems for another and it's the same thing if you divorce your spouse you are going to just end up trading one set of problems for another because there is no perfect woman out there there is no perfect guy out there they just aren't out there and chances are even just carnally speaking you're probably better off staying with the person that you're married to right now even if you could list all the problems you're better off figuring things out and learning and becoming a better person and pushing through that difficulty and you know I'm so glad that my wife and I have stayed married for the last 24 some odd years I hope that's right because of the fact that our marriage is better than ever and I love my wife and I can't even imagine being with someone else you know what I mean it's just like but you know what there are times where humanly speaking it gets rough and you get discouraged and so forth man push through stay with it stay with it stay with it don't be a quitter alright be diligent and be planted and stay with things and become stronger and become better don't just flee problems Father we thank you so much for your word Lord we thank you for this passage in Isaiah 30 and 31 about the vanity of listening to Egypt's advice and Egypt's council and how Egypt they make themselves look so successful and prosperous and good Lord help us never to be stupid enough to think that Egypt has anything real to offer Lord help us to be patient stay in Zion stay in the promised land and just wait for you to come through for us because we know that you inevitably will Lord you've come through for us so many times in our lives in the past Lord we believe you'll always do it in the future as well and so Lord God I pray that everyone who's here would take this message to heart and would understand that your word and preaching and church is not a trial subscription but that it's a permanent way of life help us to stick to it and in Jesus name we pray, Amen when the clouds fall their wings are dry when the strong tides land will your anchor trim or burn remain we have an anchor that feeds the soul listen to the rock that cannot move grounded permanently then the Savior's blood is safely born will the storm withstand the Lord is well sanctured by the Savior's hand those heavens raging will float not an angry wave shall our far floor flow we have an anchor that feeds the soul stand past the shore while the billows roll fasten to the rock which cannot move grounded permanently then the Savior's blood can our eyes be opened again with night the scaling of gold are on the line we shall anchor fast on the heavenly shore when the storm has forever more we have an anchor that feeds the soul stand past the shore while the billows roll fasten to the rock which cannot move grounded permanently then the Savior's blood will the storm fall down the earth will the earth fall down the earth will the earth fall down